There were many places that we ended up eating, some good, some ok, but nothing horrible. Of course the first day we had Da Kitchen, and Star Noodle. Here is the rest of our eats on our trip.

The Cliff Dive Bar

Pina Colada @ Cliff Dive Bar Sheraton

Black Rock Lager & Nachos @ Cliff Dive Bar

While the family is on the beach or snorkeling around Black Rock, The Cliff Dive Bar at the Sheraton is the perfect place to grab a drink.

The seats along the edge have a perfect view of the people diving off Black Rock into the water. We snacked on a huge plate of nachos that is easily sharable with four or more people.

Full bar to get your mai tai, piña colada, or basic vodka tonic. The food isn’t anything special but they at least serve food.

Hula Grill

Coconut Calamari @ Hula Grill

4 Years later and it hasn’t changed. Super busy place since its beach front of the Whaler’s Village. The food is ok, and i actually enjoyed the Coconut Calamari this time around. No food discounts for happy hour, but mai tais are cheaper. Expect a wait if you have a larger party and follow the rule of ordering when the waiter/waitress ask if you’re ready or else you’ll be waiting for another 20 minutes.

I always makes lists of things to do beyond what i think is actually possible but i find i’m happier traveller if i’m never left to wonder what else there is to do. Even with only 3 full days on the island i think we were able to do quite a bit.

Sunday afternoon we headed to the far west part of the island to attempt to go snorkeling at Honolua Bay. When we got there it was a bit tricky to find where to park and find the beach (we never did). We stopped along a bluff and checked out the scene and saw that the beach was pretty rocky and that the snorkeling looked pretty far into the bay so we just hung out for a few minutes before heading back home.

Monday morning we headed back up to the north part of the island to do a little hiking at Iao Needle. I obviously did not do my homework because i prepared for a good hour long hike but in reality it was a five minute hike. Its like walking up three flights of stairs to a little hut that faces the Iao Needle (the pointy mountain in the picture).

After the short hike we headed back down south to the Maui Ocean Center to check out the fish with out the need of a snorkel mask. Its not a big place but definitely a good place to check out on any day thats gloomy or if you have a few hours to kill.

Places:

During our trip in Maui we spent the majority of our time at Kaanapali Beach just north of Lahaina. We spent two afternoons lounging underneath umbrellas, drinking some beers and just relaxing. Nina brought along two pairs of snorkel gear so each couple took turns using them to swim around Black Rock and look at all the fish.

The real excitement happened both days when a few turtles decided to swim close to shore. There was one that was swimming back out to the ocean and swam underneath Joy which surprised her and freaked her out for a second.

Far out into the ocean there were some humpback whales passing by, spouting up water, and breaching a few times too. I had a little fun shooting this photo through my binoculars. Next time we are definitely staying at the Maui Sheraton so that we can just walk out of the hotel and get right on the beach.

Saturday morning I was up early because of the two hour time difference with PST and the kid was up with me. We hung out and watched a little Lilo and Stitch until the sun rose.

Once the sun peaked up over Haleakala all the early risers headed out the small beach just a few feet from our house. Kaylee wasn’t so happy about the loud crashing waves, but the adults had fun in the cold sand and had a little fun with some stop action photography.

For breakfast we always have to go get some McDonald’s Local Breakfast, and we made it worth it by running the 1.8 miles to the nearest McDonald’s in Lahaina. Some people had a little trouble but we made it there in under 20 minutes. This is the first time where the weather has been comfortable enough to actually last that long because normally its too muggy and i have to stop five minutes into it.

I was happy about the spam, eggs, and rice, but what really puts a smile on my face is the fried apple pie, and for this trip they had a fried haupia (coconut) pie as well! We walked off the food walking around Lahaina doing a little shopping before getting heading over to Kaanapali, a few miles north of Lahaina.

Its been almost three years since my last trip to the islands and finally we were able to coordinate it with the sister, along with jason and jia and booked a trip to Maui. We got a 3 bedroom, 3 bath vacation rental at the Puanama Resort just a few miles away from Lahaina. It also coincided with Joy and my 4th Wedding Anniversary so as custom we celebrated with family.

Joy and I arrived on Friday first and picked up our rental van for the week from Alamo and headed to Da Kitchen for a late lunch which is just 5 minutes away from the airport. We ordered the Fried Spam Musubi, and a bowl of Wonton Saimin noodle soup. The Fried Spam Musubi was probably my favorite thing i ate all week and the saimin was delicious even in all the humidity of Hawaii.

After lunch we went to K-mart across the street to pickup some toiletries which was of course more expensive (about a 20% markup) but still much cheaper than having to check in luggage for $50 Round Trip. Finally my sister arrived and we quickly headed to drop off all our stuff at our house so we could make it to our 5:00pm dinner rsvp at Star Noodle in Lahaina.

The place was packed when we arrived and plenty of people waiting for a seat so it totally worked out to make rsvp a week earlier. We went family style and ordered up about half of the menu to share highlighted by the Ahi Avo (the best Poke we had on our trip), Filipino “Bacon & Eggs” (delicious Crispy Pork Belly), and Garlic Noodles (a very homey flavor). We were disappointed that Chef Sheldon from Top Chef wasn’t there, but we were still excited try out the food.

After dinner we went to FoodLand to pickup food supplies for the rest of the week, including plenty of spam, eggs, beer, and the second best Poke we had on our trip. I also bought another of my favorite insulated grocery bags, and this time a Poke one.